Chance to measure up before All Black picks

John Afoa looks forward to pitting himself against Tony Woodcock when Auckland play North Harbour. Picture / Nigel Marple

"That right?" John Afoa said, trying to be nonchalant about the composition of the All Black squad for their end-of-year Grand Slam attempt.

The Auckland loosehead had just been informed the selectors intended taking five props, with their judgments to be revealed the day after the October 22 NPC final.

As one of five props picked in All Black squads this season, Afoa must be favoured for a selection repeat and the tour tests against Wales, Ireland, England and Scotland.

The medical report on Greg Somerville's calf strain though may have an impact on the propping choices. Somerville is a rare commodity as he can prop either side of the scrum and is an invaluable reserve.

If he does not recover, the panel may alter their ideas about Somerville being the backup to the solitary loosehead specialist Tony Woodcock. Props such as Neemia Tialata and Clarke Dermody, who can play both sides, will be considered along with former All Black Saimone Taumoepeau.

But the betting must be that having invested in Campbell Johnstone and Afoa as deputy tighthead props for Carl Hayman, they will receive their overseas boarding passes.

Afoa and Woodcock meet tomorrow at Eden Park in the second semifinal of the NPC when Auckland host North Harbour.

Last week Afoa was set for a decent duel with Somerville until Canterbury's converted loosehead injured his right calf in the opening moments of that Ranfurly Shield meeting.

"That was a shame because I only got to have a few live scrums on tour with the All Blacks, and I was looking to measure up against Greg," Afoa said.

"Mind you, Wyatt Crockett is a good prop, a good replacement. He has been in the New Zealand age-group sides, and he would have done plenty of work with Mike Cron."

Afoa is fulsome in his praise of Cron, the All Blacks scrum doctor who works closely with Mike Casey who performs a similar function with Auckland.

After Afoa was picked to study Cron's techniques during the All Blacks offshore Tri-Nations tests, he continued his practice and research with Casey during the NPC.

"We looked over clips of the Blues and some of the stuff from the All Black trial," said Afoa. "My technique has improved a lot from there."

In that national trial in Napier in early June, Afoa was matched against his Blues teammate, Woodcock.

"I was just getting popped every time and had no show. But the last couple of weeks I have been putting down quite a few good scrums, and we went okay against Canterbury."

Afoa said Woodcock was a fine technician and tomorrow would be a great chance to measure himself again after his tribulations at Napier.

"I started the trial against Woody, and it was a bit of a hiding to be fair," he recalled. "So this will be a good sounding board. I know that much of scrumming is eight on eight, but there are individual parts to it as well."

Afoa said he had dropped some weight since the trial. He was about 118kg now and in a good headspace about his work.

He was getting about the field well, he had worked extra hard on his fitness and skills to implement the gameplan Graham Henry wanted from the All Blacks.

"You have to be fit for that and have good ballhandling, be able to pass both ways and things like that."

Afoa, who will turn 22 on Sunday, was pleased to hear the All Blacks would take five props in their bid for Grand Slam glory.

"The more the better I say, though there could be a lot of hanging around for the two guys not involved in the next match. I like to do a lot of training , I just want to get into it, but it might be hard to get too much individual attention from Mike Cron.

"Whatever it would be great to go on but at the moment my attention is on this Battle of the Bridge, a Blues trial and what should be a great game."